


We're in This Together

by theskywasblue



Series: 7 Deadly Sins [2]
Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-21
Updated: 2010-05-21
Packaged: 2017-10-09 15:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blood is thicker than water</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're in This Together

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [7 Deadly Sins](http://community.livejournal.com/7_deadly_sins_/) Community on LiveJournal - Prompt: Pride; and inspired by Nine Inch Nail's "We're in This Together"

He hated it when people looked at him; and even when they weren't looking, he hated just knowing that they _wanted_ to look.

His mother never wanted to go to the market anymore, didn't even want to set foot in the village; she said she could feel the eyes on her, burning holes in her skin. Jien was sure he could feel them too. Even if everyone he passed on the street had no eyes in their heads, just gaping black holes leading into the cold nothingness inside their skulls, he would have felt the pressure of their gaze all the same, because it wasn't really about the fact that they looked at him, it was about the reason that they looked at him, or the reason they chose to look away.

Everyone stared, and even when they didn't stare, they whispered and looked at their feet and crossed to the other side of the street when he came towards them with Gojyo clinging to the hem of his shirt.

Going into the market, even once a week if he could remember to get all the things they needed in one trip, made Jien tired; not just walking all the way down to the village, or walking back with heavy bags of food that made his shoulders ache, but having to go at all, knowing what people were thinking and saying as he walked by with his little brother, trying to ignore the cold sensation of their eyes on his skin.

_There's that Sha boy…_

Oh yes, I heard about that. What an awful tragedy.

Please, no use feeling sorry for him – do you suppose that sort of thing runs in the family?

It must! And his poor mother, having to put up with having that **thing** around all the time…

I tell you, I can't understand why someone didn't just drown it.

Sometimes Jien wanted to stop being himself, wanted to become a boy that no one would recognize or whisper about, to disappear.

He couldn't understand how Gojyo lived through it all, why he didn't just crawl inside himself or collapse under the pressure of all those knowing, judging eyes the way his mother and their father had. Maybe it was just that he was too young to understand what it all really meant. Still, Jien envied that kind of strength; however his little brother came about it. He longed to have some for himself, to be tall, brave, and most of all, strong enough to carry Gojyo and the world on his shoulders; if only because it was crazy to have a five-year-old defending him.

"Look, no matter what people say – just forget about it okay?"

Gojyo looked at him, eyes narrowed, glistening, his baby-round hands clenched into tiny fists, jaw set tight, "But you're my brother Jien, you're my _only brother_."

-End-


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